Ozarks Property Rights Congress Meeting
April 28 -7:00 p.m.—Hayloft Restaurant 
Mountain Grove, Missouri

Come early if you care to eat as no food is allowed in the meeting room,
due to limited restaurant staff.

Meeting Topics

Larry Dills from Rogersville, will talk about the Missouri Conservation Department releasing the names & addresses of folks who have bought hunting or fishing permits, to the Appalachian Wildlife Foundation. AWF, in turn, sends solicitation letters to those people on the MDC list. AWF gave $50,000 to MDC to assist in bringing elk to Missouri.
 

 There will be updates on several AG bills. Doreen will discuss HB209, which infringes on private property owners ability to protect their property from serious nuisances. It has passed both houses & is waiting for the Governor’s signature to become law. We are asking that  Gov. Nixon veto HB209, as it effectively implements statewide zoning &  has great potential to destroy one’s ability to protect their property.
 

Bob will talk about HB458, the Missouri Farmland Trust Act has passed through the House 157-0 & is now in the Senate Agriculture, Food Production & Outdoor Resource Committee. Do we really want the state of Missouri in the real estate leasing business? Let the private sector determine what happens to the land. Senator Chuck Purgason is a member of that committee – Call him.
  

By meeting time we will probably know if the Governor has signed SB113 which modifies Prop B. The Humane Society of the US is using national TV to encourage out-of-state folks to call Gov. Nixon urging him not to sign the bill. It was HSUS money that passed Prop B  in the first place.

Against the Bill

The Ozarks Property Rights Congress and all of its branches are devoted to protecting private property and private property owners from infringements of enjoyment and usage as well as constraints on use from any source.

 HB 209 represents a dangerous constraint on use and enjoyment for many while securing the use of property for a few. As such, we are against this bill, and all other bills that are similar to HB 209.

In particular, we find the constraint of the cap on the fair market value of a property to be repugnant to common sense. The market values and availability of property fluctuate, particularly in this economy.  There is no provision of compensation for relocation costs incurred by someone who is unable to any longer enjoy their property due to their neighbor’s property usage.

 Let’s not pretend. If the operation of a large CAFO has rendered a private property unusable by an adjacent or nearby property owner, the fair market value of the property in question is going to be reduced. Also, the only entity interested in procuring the property will likely be the entity that made the property uninhabitable to begin with. This is decidedly unjust, and certainly does not insure a level playing field to all affected parties.

 Currently, in the State of Missouri, we can seek remedy for violations of our use and enjoyment of our private property in court, and the establishment of CAFO’s can be handled locally by those affected by that type of property usage. This bill would remove that capacity for remedy.

 If there were a clause in this bill constraining the limitations established herein to new property owners who, with knowledge and therefore implied consent, moved in next to these types of operations and then decided to file suits against an occupant who had well established prior usage and a sound operational history, we might be able to consider being neutral or possibly even supportive of the bill. Such is not the case.

 This bill is effectively providing eminent domain for agribusiness enterprises, which continue to consolidate markets and have negative affects on local communities and adjoining property owners. It implements state wide zoning that favors consolidated corporate interests above independent private property owners and does not protect prior possession and usage. As such, we stand against this bill.

 It is never the right of a property owner to destroy the use and value of another property owner. This bill would enshrine in statute the ability of one type of property use to prevail over all other types of property use and enjoyment. It is not fair, it is not just, and it far from reasonable.

 The system we have in place is sufficient and affords private property owners the ability to both protect and use their land. It is not broken, so don’t fix it.

 We urge the Committee to vote NO on HB 209 and all similar bills.

 Thank you for your time today.

 Doreen Hannes
 Ozarks Property Rights Congress
 (417) 962 0030

OZARKS PROPERTY RIGHTS CONGRESS MEETING
April 14 -7:00 p.m.— Vaught’s Family Restaurant
Gainesville, Missouri 
On meeting nights, food is served from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. There will be a buffet on this meeting night. 

Vaught’s Restaurant is on Highway 160 West of  Highway 5  South

Discussion Topics

The Ozarks Highlands National Heritage Area has been stopped for now. Bob Parker will speak on following the money trail of how some $189,000 was spent on this effort to infringe on our property rights. We are not convinced that the OHNHA is really going away all together. We must be extra vigilant that is does not sneak back into our lives in some other form. Guess we are just suspicious that way, judging from past experience dealing with government agencies.
 
Combating the effects of the Food Safety Modernization Act by passing Local Food Freedom Ordinances. Patterned after the ordinance passed in Sedgewick, Maine, Doreen Hannes has drawn up a similar ordinance for counties in Missouri. We will discuss what the Act enables agencies to do to our right to grow food, and what the local food freedom ordinance can do to help protect us. Mary Rivera will be talking about that and County Land Use Plans.
 
Counties that have land use plans should use those plans to stop these efforts by the Federal Government to tell them how to run their county. We need to get back to local citizens being in charge of their rights.
 

OPRC Meeting in Mountain Grove, Missouri
April 28, 7 p.m.– Hayloft Restaurant.

An open letter to Kris Norman
Ozarks Preservation, INC.

March 23, 2011

 Mr. Norman,
  
 When Ray Cunio and I met with you and Mrs. Brenda Bell some six years ago concerning your ambition to form a National Heritage Area, we advised you that we would oppose such action. You, in turn,  assured us you would notify us if you decided to pursue such a designation. Subsequently, you choose to ignore that dialogue and worked under our radar during the ensuing years to achieve your goal  Due to your successful methods of subterfuge, we did not engage in your project until the fall of 2010. 

Only after Mr. L.D. Davis reminded you of your promise to inform me did you attempt to contact us and arrange the meeting we had at Cabool in Nov. 2010. At the Cabool meeting we were told there was no documentation or paper work and that the feasibility study was an incomplete work in progress and there was nothing to show. We soon learned there were over 700 pages of relative material in your files and that the draft plan had been compiled at the time we were told it did not exist.

You must have thought we were complete fools or “useful idiots.”

While your effort pulled down about $200,000.00 of taxpayer money to fund you in 2010, we rely on our private resources and time to stave off these unneeded and unwanted designations with their potential regulations and restrictions on our private property.

You should not be surprised that many of our rank and file do not accept at face value your statement of withdrawal based on your past track record. We have compiled a large file of evidence of public opposition to  any Heritage Area or similar designation that, in any way, includes our private property within any proclaimed boundaries. We prepared this file to present to the appropriate congressional committees, Missouri’s congressional delegation,  National Park Service, and any other decision making body involved.

We will retain this file made up of letters from county commissions, newspaper articles and pictures, letters to the editors and complete audio recording of the Mtn. View meeting etc. for future dissemination, as needed, should this or a similar issue. reappear.

I hope I have made our position clear.

Thank you,
c.Russell Wood
President Ozarks Property Right Congress

 
Christian County Missouri Chapter
Ozarks Property Rights Congress
Will Meet on Thursday, April 7 —7:00 p.m.
at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church – 877 Hwy JJ.

From the West, take Hwy 14 East from 65 Hwy through Ozark towards Sparta and approximately 1 mile past W Hwy take a left off of 14 onto JJ Hwy, then 0.8 tenths of a mile to Mt. Zion Baptist Church on the left.
 
             

Featured Speaker: Christian County Sheriff Joey Kyle

Other Planned Disussion Topics

 
• Selling Raw Milk & Produce  vs The Health Board
• The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010,  the fake “food safety” (really “food control”) bill S.510/HR.2751 passed the Lame Duck Congress on December 21, 2010, and was signed into law January 2011. What can be done to protect our right to grow our own food and eat what we choose, now that this bill is law?
• Christian County Building Codes and Planning/Zoning regulations.

Lawrence County Chapter Meeting
Ozarks Property Rights Congress
Tuesday, April 5 – 7:00 p.m.

The meeting will be held at an old church in Mount Vernon. The directions are: Go approximately 2 blocks N. on Market St. (in front of the Keen Bean) to Division W. 1 1/2 blocks to the corner of Division and West St. look for a  red roof.

As you all know there are a lot of issues to talk about, and work on.

From Chapter Co-Ordinator Eric Vimont